By Ian Crone of Columbia Spectator
Published December 5, 2007
"Despite its wasted potential, Mass Effect really is an awesome game, with an extraordinary narrative and memorable characters, striking - if occasionally glitchy - visuals, and passable combat. It's only the brilliance of the game that makes its flaws so apparent, and nothing can change the fact that game developer BioWare has produced one of the finest sci-fi role-playing games of all time. If BioWare can fix the problems and keep the essence intact, Mass Effect 2 - a trilogy, at least, is planned - will be an instant classic."
This review does not assign a rating or score.
Thanks to their innovative approach to gaming, RPGs like Dark Souls, Final Fantasy VII, and Dragon Quest left a significant impact on the genre.
ES3 set things off, it's a shame they got greedy and decided to cut corners so the executives could get huge pay days.
GF365: "A friend makes the adventure all the more fun. Here are the best video game companions that will keep you company."
The Mass Effect N7 Day teaser has already been decoded, and it features Liara T'Soni talking about The Council, and The Geth can be heard too.
Better not bring back Shepherd from the dead with some half assed space magic.
@snowb420.
Yeah I saw that at the end of my play through as well. I think they will bring Shepard back….. or at least a mutant version turned villain. Lol
I find it strange that Mass Effect is looked down upon for its texture loading issues, but both Gears of War (not as much) and Bioshock (about the same) have the same problem.
Anyway, the game is awesome and if you haven't played it yet I suggest you do. It's an epic experience.
"Roughly 95 percent of the planets in Mass Effect’s universe are covered in mountains, but the tank climbs terribly. Steering is an exercise in futility, and occasionally a subterranean worm will pop out of the ground and kill you.."
The Mako steers and climbs EXACTLY like Halo's Warthog, just without the rear-wheel steering....and is VERY EASY to master. One of my favorite things to do, is climb to the highest point on every planet, and checkout the surrounding view ; believe it or not, it's possible. :)
I'm surprised so many reviewers found it glitchy and that it has visual flaws. They seem desperate to focus on the tiny flaws instead of looking at the big picture. The first time I played it I was convinced it was gonna get 10's everywhere. I've played it for 15 hours now and I haven't noticed any except for the texture loading when you start it up. Really, no more than in any other game.
It's funny cause the same reviewers compare it and say KOTOR was flawless. If you have played any of the KOTOR games you know they had much more glitches, graphical slowdowns etc. than Mass Effect. I remember the glitch in KOTOR 2, at the beginning were you got to play as a robot for a while then when it switched back to the main character the game just froze. When you tried loading your saved game you just got to the freezing point(!).
IMO Mass Effect is too good of a game to let reviewers decide. If your hesitating if you should get it or not, try it out yourself before you listen too much on the reviewers. This goes for almost any game.
This review must be written by someone who truly hates RPG's. It seems like he was intent on hating Mass Effect even before he played it.
And yes there are glitchy problems, texture loading problems - the texture loading issues are because the Unreal 3 engine streams textures whether this will happen on Unreal Tournament 3 is yet to be seen.
Dont forget even KOTOR on the old Xbox had issues as well, and ironically huge RPG's like this and Oblivion had or have issues as well in some cases.
The one thing that bothers me is the screen tearing I dont understand what causes it but why cant developers eliminate that?